Refrigerating apparatus



www 3 9 WM s U M2 NR @Aw Twl SA N G Hm @um J x Ele .mn JEF R @HawleyPatentedMayv 5, 1925.

JAMES E. JOHNSTON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOB TO DllllTROIllCREAHEBY 1,536,394 Pa'rmurV OFFICE.

COMPANY, 0F DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION OF MICHIIZGAIN'.

J BEFRIGERATING APPARATUS.

v VVV Appnaamn med August 2s, 1922. smaino. 583,752.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES E. JOHNSTON, a citizen of the United States,residin at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michivan, have invented a-certain new and usefull mprovement in Refrigerating Apparatus, anddeclare the following to be a fu clear, and exact description of thesame, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which Vitpertains to make and use the same, reference being had to theaccompanyin drawings, which form a part of this speci cation. T hisinvention relates to refrigerating apparatus, more particularly to suchapparatus adapted for use in conjunction with an automotive vehicle.Heretofore in the transmitting of ice cream and various products bymeans of a motor truck, a quantity ofice is carried in the samecompartment with the materials to be maintained at low temperature, butsuch arrangement in many casesis wasteful of ice and does not maintainice cream, ices and other frozen confections at a suiiciently low temverature, particularly if such product is to e transported aconsiderable distance. I have provided an improved refrigeratingapparatus including a brine circulating system hereinafter described bymeans of which the storage compartment is maintained continuously at thedesired low temperature and by use of a minimum amount of ice, thecirculation of the brine in the system being by a pump driven by themotor or other ower. operated part of the automotive vehicle. tures ofthe invention/reside in the circulating sustem, the compartment forcontaining the` iceV and brine and the arrangement of the circulatingsystem for operation in conjunction therewith. These objects and theseveral novel features of the invention are hereinaii'ter moreparticularly described and claimed, and the preferred form of arefrigerating apparatus embodying my invention is shown in theaccompanying drawings in which Fig 1 is a view in dotted outline of anY. automotive vehicle showing in full lines my refrigerating apparatusin its relationship thereto. v

Fig. 2 is a cross section on lines 2--2 of Fig. 1 showing thearrangement of the brine ciil'lcuting conduits within the body of the ve1c The fea# Fig. 3 is a plan view of a portion of the brlne circulatingconduit. l

In Fig. 1 I have shown a hantom View of the motor truck and it is tounderstood that the vehicle body, as shown at 1 in Fig. 2, 1s formedwith double walls providing an air space or the space between the wallsmay be filled with insulating material. The compartment 90'to berefrigerated may be provided with any preferred type of door as forinstance as indicated at 2 in Fig. 2 and in this compartment there is aseries of coils 3 at the ceiling and other series or banks of coils 4and 5 about the side walls of the compartment. These banks of coils 4.and 5 are closely adjacent the walls of the compartmentY providing spacebetween the banks of the colls for the stored product. In the preferredarrangement of the circulatm system I provlde a brine tank 6 above t ecompartment in a space rovided -therefor and preferably separated om thecompartment90 by a wall 7.' The vehicle body is formed of a double wallas indicated 1n Fig. 2 and at the top an opening is rovid'ed for aremovable cover 8 through w ich lce and brine may be introduced. Nearone end of the com artment I provide an out-v letconduit 9 w ich preferly extends upwardly into the brine tank for a distance and is providedwith ascreen or a series of apertures in the extension 10 of theconduit. The conduit 9 leads into a settling tank 11 preferably providedVwith a discharge valve 12 at the bottom. Also, leading into this tank,as will be seen in Fig. 3, Vis a conduit -13,.and it is to be understoodthat this conduit extends .but a short distance into the tank 11 whilethe conduit 9 extends downward thereinto :t'or a considerable distanceas indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1. The conduit 13 is connecteddirectly with the bank of coils 3 which extend in parallel loops in ahorizontal plane across the ceiling of the compartment. This bank 3 isconnected, by means of a conduit 14, with the `bottom of the bank ofcoils 5` which is formed of a series of return bent portions lying in avertical plane and the top of this coil discharges into the upper end ofthe bank of coils 4 which discharge to a pump 15 located in anyconvenient position and may be driven in any approved manner as forinstance by the propeller shaft 16 of the automotive vehicle by a chainor belt or other convenient means as indicated in Fig. 2. This pump maybe of any approved tye and takes the liquid from the coils of ecirculating system and carries it upward through a conduit I7 on the,outside of thecompartment dischargingemto thebrine 6 at the top. Thenum r of coils utilized may be increased or dimimshed over what is hereshown depending u n the size of the com artment to be cool andadditional Vsett tanks may be used vat convenient points if desired. Themain feature, however, is in the provision of the ice and brine tankabove the compartment to be cooled, the tank being of a capacity tocarry a considerable quantity of ice andbrine. It is to be understoodthat salt andlice or salt solution and ice suicient to makea strongbrine solution is provided in the tank 6.v When the automotive vehicleis in operation the pump is driven either yby beingv connected with apro eller shaft as is indicated vor directly wit the engine as maybedesired and this rapidly circulates the brine through thezc'on.l

tling tank providing means whereby sedi-Y ment is prevented from beingcarried into the pipes and clogging of the same. The brine tank being atthe to of the compartment tends to feed the co' s by gravity and thepump is utilized to return the same to thev supply tank and preferably,inasmuch as the conduit 17 is on the exterior of the storagecompartment, it is covered with insulation to revent absorption of heatby the `fluid in t e conduit 17 while the conduits within thecompartment -are not insulated.

t0A pump, w e the vehicle-is in operation or the engine is operating,causes a rapid absorption of heatof the compartment maintaining the sameat a low temperature. s For instanceY in use I havel found that at thetime of filling the storage tank 6 with ice and brine, the temperatureof the compartment may be around forty degrees F., 'when' filled withgoods. The apparatus as'here shown is designed for use in transportingice cream and frozen confections of various tyges and therefore a numberof coils is provi ed presenting a large area to the air of thecompartment whereby rapid absorption of heat vis secured. With thisapparatus startin at -a temperature of forty degrees F., an operatingfor a period oftwo hours the temperature of the compartment willdrop toa freezing temperature, and will be maintained at. about suchtemperature -as longasthere is ice in the brine tank 6 and the engineand vehicle are in operation. With the system arranged asv described,when the engine and vehiclega're not in operation so that the pump isoperated, the great area t of conduit'expo'sed to the air of the com#lia.; considerable distance apart sov that the duits inthe storagecompartment, -the set-95' warm brine from the con `*for a considerabledistance through the ice The raEii-ld circulation of the brinebythemaintained at a very ow temperature during operationf of the pump ndly,due to the arrangement of the brine supply which tends to feed thesystem by gravity, there is more or lesscontinuous ilow of the colderbrine into the coils by gravity and tendency of the warmer brine in thecoils to rise to the brine tank.

Another beneficial -result is attained by the arrangement ofthedischarge conduit 1 atone en of the tank and the outlet 9 and 10 atthe-other-end thereof spacing the same uit 17 must ow -and brine tank 6before it may again pass .into the conduits in l'the storage comartment. Further the discharge of the rine .from the conduit 17 into theank above the lev'el of the Afluidtherein tends to preventcilililgealing.. of the ice in mass form in-the t and such eongealing isalso to some extent prevented b' movement of the vehicle over the roadsur ace by which the tank is jarred or swayed sulliciently to keep theice in the tank broken up.

.This arrangement, while comparatively simple, is very eilicient inoperation, utilizingV a less quantity of ice to cool the compartmentthan if ice were merely placed in the compartment with the goods. Theunsanitary effect of the melting ice is also avoided particularly in thestorage compartment and, while a quantity of ice is necessarilytransported, lit is used to far betteradvantage and the expense of thestructure is more than compensated for by the increased ei'ectiveness ofthe ice employed and greater reduction in temperature in the storagecompartment over that secured by direct icing. It is further to beunderstood that my apparatus may be utilized in stationary insta'llations without departin from the spirit of my invention as set fort inthe appended claims.

at I claim is- 1. In a refrigerating apparatus, the combination with astorage compartment having heat insulated wallsz of a secondcompartment. thereabove having heat linsulated walls separaerll)fromthe-iirst com artmeiet, an. ice an rine suppy rece tace n't secondcompartment, aY settlling tank in the l partment having heat insulatedWalls, of a second compartment thereabove having heat insulated Wallsand separated from the first compartment, the said second compartmentbeing provided with means to hold a supply ofvice and brine, a settlingtank in the storage compartment into which brine ymay iiow by gravityfrom the brine tank of the second compartment, a series of coils in the20 storage compartment connected with the top of the settling tank, apump operatively connected with the power plant and oonnected with thecoils tending on operation to withdraw brine therefrom, and a disfcharge conduit for the pump discharging brine into the supplyreceptacle.

In testimony whereof, I signthis speci'- ication.

JAMES E. JOHNSTON.

